By Ann Taylor Boutwell
Dec. 2, 1977: Cactus Flower, Abe Burrows’ 1965 farce, was playing at the Harlequin. The dinner theatre, located in Buckhead’s Piedmont-Peachtree Crossing Shopping Center, was across from two-year-old Tower Place. The production starred Texas native Ann Miller. In her heyday she was America’s leading female tap dancer. Also starring was Stuart Culpepper and a local cast. The Harlequin’s interiors were described in Anne River Siddons’ 1978 guidebook, Go Straight on Peachtree, as “a stunning reproduction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.” In February 1980, the site opened as the Limelight Discotheque.
Dec. 5 1985: The Rhodes Theatre situated in a shopping center at the junction of Peachtree, West Peachtree, and Spring streets closed with The Last Picture Show. The Rhodes first opened in June 1938, with Test Pilot starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracey. The future of the still-standing, but mostly vacant Art-Deco style building designed by Ivey & Crook architectural firm is uncertain.
Dec. 7, 1881: Alfred Austell died at his home on Marietta Street, located on what is now the State Bar of Georgia site at 104 Marietta. He was the founder of the first banking institution ever organized in the south. The Austell Mausoleum stands today at the highest point of Oakland Cemetery.
Dec. 25, 1939: The Fox Theatre celebrated its 10th anniversary with Gulliver’s Travels, Paramount’s first full-length cel-animated Technicolor film. Gulliver’s Travels was Paramount’s answer to Walt Disney’s 1937 box-office hit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Dec. 30, 1867: The United States Government called its military post located on the southwestern wedge of Atlanta, McPherson Barracks. It honored Union General James Birdseye McPherson, killed July 22, 1864, in the Battle of Atlanta. With disdain locals referred to it as “that Yankee garrison” and were overjoyed to see the troops depart in 1881. Four years later, the Army acquired 140 acres for a permanent installation, located 2.5 miles south of the old McPherson Barracks. On May 4, 1889, the site named Fort McPherson became the first permanent Army installation in the Southeast. Fort McPherson is now closed, but is under redevelopment for a mixed-use site to include science and technology labs as well as housing.
Dec. 31, 1987: The well-known design work of architect Anthony Ames, a graduate of both Georgia Tech and Harvard, was admired, often criticized, and honored with accolades. His emerging design voice had captured the respect of the Architectural League and the Atlanta Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He had completed two local public commissions: the Orientation Center for the Atlanta Botanical Garden (1984) and the Fulton County Library in Alpharetta (1986). On Nov. 6, 2013, emailed images from concerned Ansley Park neighbors verified the demolition of Ames best-known work Hulse residence (1984) at 96 Westminster. Ames said he was “surprised, saddened and angry” about the destruction of the home.
Ann Taylor Boutwell is an Atlanta historian, tour guide and docent at the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum. Email her atannboutwell@bellsouth.net.
Thanks for the newsletter. I have moved and am now a resident of “the Big Easy.” …Until we meet again, Penny